History

Collection Area

History

History of “History” at Dartmouth

The
History Department was founded in 1894 and has consistently been one
the most popular majors at Dartmouth College. It is administered within
the Social Science Division of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. A
traditional interest in the United States, Great Britain, and Europe
has evolved to the point where the “curriculum [is] broadly
international in its reach and deep in its chronological perspective.”
Currently the curriculum and faculty are organized into three divisions
– American, European, and AALAC (Asian, African, Latin American and
Caribbean). This tripartite division was formalized in 1972. Also at
that time the history major was restructured around the principle of
geographic distribution. In 2002, becoming effective with the class of
2006, the Department revised its requirements for history majors,
moderating the emphasis on geographic breadth to “permit students to
concentrate on topics and regions that cut across these geographic
divisions.”

The mission of the Department stands “at the heart
of Dartmouth’s commitment to the liberal arts.” It prepares some
students to go on to become professional historians; and for the
majority of history students who do not pursue the discipline beyond
the undergraduate level the study of history at Dartmouth provides “a
general understanding of the historical foundations and cultural
dimensions of the world…” and perhaps most importantly the faculty
seeks to “inculcate and develop basic, critical, analytical and
communication skills that have a broad application beyond the academy.”

General Purpose

Provide library
resources for undergraduate instruction and student and faculty
research. The main users of the history collection are faculty and
students of the History Department. However, members of many other
departments make use of historical sources, and the history faculty has
a wide variety of interests and stress inter-disciplinary approaches to
learning, therefore, collecting needs to be done on a broadly
comprehensive and even basis.

Dartmouth College Program

Dartmouth
College offers an undergraduate major in history. Students have the
choice of specializing in the history of the United States, Great
Britain, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, or Africa. The
history faculty has one or more specialists in each of these areas as
well as the history of science, Native American history, African
American history and women's history. Seminars, which rely heavily on
library holdings, are required of majors, and an honors program, which
requires a thesis, is offered.The history collection also supports students in the Masters of Liberal Studies (MALS) program.

General Subject Boundaries

The
History Department offers a broad range of traditional courses that
reflect the core of the subject collection. In addition to the
traditional emphasis on U.S. history, the program and collection at
Dartmouth supports teaching and research for the history of women,
African-American history, Native American history, the history of
science, Latin American studies, African studies, Jewish studies, and
Middle Eastern and Asian studies. The discipline is not limited by
language or geography. There is some overlap in subject matter with the
disciplines of fine arts, cultural studies, literature, government,
economics, anthropology, sociology, and the sciences.

Languages

The
main language collected for historical materials is English. Scholarly
works, some primary sources, and important scholarly journals are also
collected in French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and to a lesser
degree, in Latin, Italian, and Russian. Western language material,
especially English, is emphasized for non-Western regions. For the
collection of materials in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean see the
collection policy statement for Asian Studies. The teaching of Arabic and Hebrew has a modest impact on History at this time.

Geographic Areas

There
are no geographical limits for the history collection although
traditionally heavier emphasis has been given to the U.S. and Great
Britain. The history of New Hampshire and the White Mountains is
Dartmouth's most comprehensive history collection. This local regional
material receives broad usage by visiting researchers as well the
faculty and staff of Dartmouth. Also within the U.S., there is a
somewhat greater depth in the history of New England, the Middle
Atlantic States, the old South, and the Middle West east of the
Mississippi than on the area west of the Mississippi. In the past
Canada and Western Europe occupied a second tier of emphasis while
Latin America, Russia, China, Japan, Africa, the Middle East, and India
occupied a third tier. This is no longer the case. Increased interest
in Eastern and Western Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, and the
acknowledged interconnectedness of the histories of all regions makes
it necessary to collect on a more intensive level across the regions of
the world.

Chronological Boundaries

The
time span covered is from the beginning of recorded history to the
present, with the exclusion of Ancient Mediterranean history, which is
covered by the Classics policy statement. No time period is given more
emphasis than others, although because more is published on the modern
era (ca. 1450- ) a larger amount of the budget is expended on that
period.

Types Of Material Collected

Scholarly
monographs and journals, i.e. secondary sources, are collected
systematically; dissertations and video material (DVD, VHS tapes) are
collected more selectively. Primary sources are heavily emphasized in
teaching history at Dartmouth and these are emphasized in collection
building. Historical newspapers, personal narratives (papers, letters,
diaries, memoirs, etc), pamphlets, broadsides, government, legal and
other documents, statistical data, and oral histories are all acquired
in various formats to support the curriculum and research.The
Library has been a depository for U.S. Government documents since 1884,
and the Library also collects Vermont, New Hampshire, and United
Nations documents.Textbooks and juvenile material are not collected except in exceptional circumstances.

Format Of Materials Collected

Print
remains the dominant format for books/monographs at this time.
Contemporary e-books are collected selectively and supplement the print
collection. Historical e-books in collections such as Early American Imprints and Early English Books Online
constitute critically important resources and are highly desirable.
E-book publishing is growing and will be a larger force in the future
as the technology evolves and improves.Print journals are still an
important component of the collection but digital editions are as
important and even preferred in many instances. Databases such as JSTOR, Project Muse, the History Cooperative,
and others provide enhanced searching and access that contribute
enormously to our holdings and to scholarship conducted at the College.Video
materials are acquired in DVD (preferred) and VHS formats. As the
distribution of video images evolves we will investigate those options.Primary
source collections in digital format are alluded to above. This is an
increasingly important collection area. New collections and the
digitization of older microform collections are proliferating and
offering enhanced access to valuable documents, particularly in the
area of history. We collect this material selectively, based on
curricular needs as funding allows. Free websites, e.g. “EuroDocs,”
“Gallica,” “Monumenta Germaniae Historica digital, ”The Avalon
Project,” etc. are sought out and added to our library catalog.

Special Collections and Manuscripts

The
Dartmouth Special Collections Library contains a substantial amount of
historical material. Rare books, original manuscripts, broadsides,
local oral history, and other unpublished materials, which are not in
microform, are the responsibility of Special Collections and are
covered by its own collection statement. Special Collections holdings
on the history of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Dartmouth College are
extensive, and there is a significant collection on polar exploration.

Other Resources Available

The
most important outside source of information is document delivery
(interlibrary loan) from large and small research collections through
national, and even international, online networks. Local and regional
study is supplemented by the collections of the New Hampshire and
Vermont Historical Societies, the New England Historic and Genealogical
Society, The New Hampshire Records and Archives, the Vermont State
Archives, regional historical museums, and regional town archives and
historical societies.